Bullet Train (2022)
3/4
Bullet Train is David Leitch’s newest high-octane action extravaganza. The main thing that I like about this movie are the action sequences. Look, if you’re going to see a movie that’s coming from the man who brought us flicks like John Wick, Deadpool 2, and Atomic Blonde, you know that you’re at lest going to get some truly balls-to-the-wall action scenes, but, honestly, I think the action sequences here are some of the best-looking fight scenes I’ve seen in a movie in quite some time. They cement Leitch as one of the finest action directors working today.
Another thing that made this movie was its humour—this is an unexpectedly funny movie. A good example of this is the train fight scene that you see pop up in the trailer. If you’ve watched that trailer, you know that at some point in the film, Brad Pitt’s character Ladybug is having a fight with Brian Tyree Henry’s character Lemon in the quiet part of the train they’re in. This whole scene has a lot of situational comedy involved due to the two having a fight where they’re not allowed to make any noise. This leads to an equally funny part of the movie that made me laugh out loud.
There are also a few celebrity cameos in Bullet Train that got a lot of chuckles from the audience when I saw it in the theatre, and that humour element really works in the film’s favour.
Another thing that worked for me is the cast. Pitt is really good in this movie but the standouts were Henry and Aaron Taylor-Johnson. They play a pair of bickering sibling assassins, and their scenes drive a lot of the film’s humour, especially from Henry, who has a whole comedic aspect to his character that I won’t spoil, but it’s honestly the funniest part of the movie. This is a superbly well-casted movie, and that cast adds a lot of comedic flavouring.
There’s nothing about the movie that I disliked personally, but there are some things that people might take issue with. For example, the non-linear story structure can come off as a little jumbled, particularly when it comes to how each of the characters are introduced and their connection to the main storyline. Also, the movie’s overly complicated explanation for events unfolding the way they do has some holes in it, and the main villain is not very interesting and comes off as incompetent at times, which will tun off some viewers.
But, for the most part, Bullet Train speeds past these missteps and delivers to its audience a funny and action-packed experience, and I’m happy to say its’s well worth everybody’s time and money.